Food: You Say Cassata, I Say Bomba (Cake)

from Modern Pastry

Just when I think I know everything about Italian pastry, along comes another delicious morsel. The above, a Cassata cake, is what I would describe as a cross between a rum cake and a cannoli. Yes, please.

A more precise definition, found on Wikipedia, categorizes Cassata as “a traditional sweet from Sicily, consisting of round sponge cake moistened with fruit juices or liqueur and layered with ricotta cheese, candied peel, and a chocolate or vanilla filling similar to cannoli cream. It is covered with a shell of marzipan, pink and green pastel colored icing.”

Purists believe that once the Cassata cake is covered in the almond paste icing, it is then considered a “Bomba” cake, but the internet yields differing opinions on the topic.

But hey, with all of the Cosa Nostra activity in the news lately, I don’t really care what this Sicilian dessert is called. I’m just excited to be eating it with a real fork, on “the outside,”  if you know what I mean.